Princess Amelia & Henrietta

A friend of ours shared a bunch of princess costumes and Amelia loves dressing up in them.

Tonight she decided that Henrietta needed to dress up with her - and there was even a smaller costume for Henrietta.

Not the best picture of Amelia, but it shows both of the princesses better.

The Binkie Update

• A 3-year old going through binkie-withdrawals is no fun.
• Amelia does not know how to get herself to sleep without her binkie, so naps are lacking and bedtimes are very late.
• When she wakes up in the middle of the night, she doesn't know how to get back to sleep without her binkie, so she cries/screams for me.
• Due to lack of naps and restless nights, Amelia is grouchy.
• Because Amelia isn't always taking a nap, I don't get a nap either or get things done without interruptions, which makes me grouchy.
• It's been almost a week and Ken tells me that it will get better . . . but it's a lot harder than I thought it would be.

Memorial Day Weekend

On Saturday, we drove up to the Port Townsend area for the weekend, and started our afternoon at Fort Warden State Park.  I had planned on a cold, rainy weekend, so I was unprepared for the sunshine, but definitely didn't complain.  Sophia asks for sunglasses when it's sunny, but she doesn't like to wear them; she just plays with them and hangs them around her neck.

Amelia is happiest at the beach when she can dig and play in the sand.

Amelia found a "treasure" and wanted Daddy to take a picture of it.  I'm not sure what the treasure was, but she was pretty excited about it.

At Fort Warden State Park, we also visited the Marine Science Center.  It's basically a bunch of tide pools, indoors, where kids and adults can touch the sea life.  Amelia was brave and touched almost everything - sea stars (aka. starfish), sea anemones, sea worms.  She wanted to touch the crabs, but we told her that wasn't such a good idea.  She thought the octopus was cool, but I think she's happy that it was in a tank where it couldn't touch her.

On Sunday we drove to Sequim, and walked along the Dungeness Spit - one of the world's longest natural sand spits.  It was beautiful and the rocks on the beach were amazing.

My pictures really don't do justice to the cool variety of rocks, but since we weren't allowed to take any off the beach, this is as good as it gets (with my camera, anyway). 

Sophia preferred to be held where it was rocky, instead of walking on her own.

But once we got to more open sand, Sophie was happy to get down and explore on her own.  We didn't walk the 5 miles to the lighthouse and back again, but we did enjoy exploring close to shore.

Apparently Ken and I must have been taking too many pictures this weekend.  This is Amelia saying "don't take my picture".

This tree that was lying on the ground had a knot in it, and the knot was filled with little rocks and water.  Amelia and Sophia were in heaven playing with them.

After lunch we went to a wild animal farm - definitely not something to do on a holiday weekend.  It was packed - bumper to bumper cars and hard for the girls to wait to see the animals.  However, I think they enjoyed it.  I know Sophia loved the peacocks and Amelia's favorite was the zebras.  Both girls were worn out by the time we headed back to our hotel.

Click here to watch a video of the girls snoring/sleeping on our way home.  It's not exciting, but Ken and I thought it was funny, so maybe you will too. 

Overall, it was a great, relaxing weekend and we can't wait to go to another beach in July.

We Can Do Hard Things

Thurs. morning, at about 5am, Amelia started crying because she couldn't find her binkie. I looked and looked, turned the light on and looked, took all the covers off of the bed and looked, moved the bed and looked . . . and could not find her binkie.  I knew the "sleep fairy" hadn't taken it, but I couldn't find it.  I promised Amelia we'd look again in the morning and she went back to sleep without it.

I didn't fall back to sleep, but laid there thinking that perhaps this was a good excuse to get rid of Amelia's binkie.  I don't think I was ready and I know that Amelia wasn't ready for the binkie to go away, but we did it anyway.

After Amelia woke up, I found her binkie in a corner of her bedroom that I had missed at 5am, quickly hid it from Amelia again, then asked Amelia to help me look in her room for the missing binkie.  We looked and looked, but no binkie was found, so I told Amelia that she must have lost it in her sleep and just like when we lost one of her binkies in a store and one while we were traveling, this binkie would be gone for good too.

She wasn't too upset then, but come nap time, she just was so sad.  And since she's always used her binkie to fall asleep, she just didn't know how to get to sleep without it.  After an hour of trying all sorts of things, including lots of crying (from both of us) we both gave up - and neither of us got a nap.  I came so close to "finding" the binkie, but knew I should be strong and get rid of it.

I let Amelia stay up really late so that she would be super tired at bedtime, and with just a little encouragement, she went right to sleep - without her binkie!

We survived Day 1 of no binkie, but the first thing Amelia asked for this morning was her binkie.  It's hard giving up something you really like, something that soothes and comforts, something you've had all of your life.  But she did it and each day will hopefully get easier for her . . . and hopefully she'll still take a nap in the afternoon - because I know I still need a nap each afternoon.

The Lacey Grande Parade

I love parades!  I grew up going to lots of parades every summer, and in contrast to my brother, this did not make me hate parades - I love parades!  I get teary eyed watching the marching bands (even if they're not all that great), I wave to all the politicians and "beautiful girls" (as my Dad used to call them), and ooh & aah at the pretty horses.

So when I found out that the city of Lacey does a "Grande Parade" as part of their Spring Fun Fair, I figured this was a good time to start taking my kids to parades.  Amelia wasn't so sure about the whole thing at first.  As a matter of fact, she actually cried when the first band came by - and they were not happy tears.  But then the participants started handing out treats, that made her happier.  (Sophia was just happy to be with Daddy - oh, and she liked the candy too, or doo-dah, as she calls it.)

And then more bands came by - and she didn't cry.  She even started waving along with me to all the people in the "floats".

When I asked her what her favorite part of the parade was, she said "the princesses", aka. the "beautiful girls".

She was sure Daddy's favorite part was the bands, and I told her I liked those too.
For a "Grande" parade, this wasn't much of one, but it only lasted an hour, it didn't rain on us, and we got enough candy & freebies to make it worth our time.  Overall, I think the girls had a good time . . . and it made me all geared up for the next parade. 

Taco Soup

I've posted recipes before, but never of my own creation.  My family liked this soup, but if you don't - I'm okay with that.  

TACO SOUP
2 lb Hamburger
1 1/2 tbsp  taco seasoning (or a taco seasoning packet), divided
1 onion, diced
2 1/2 C. beef bouillon/stock **
1 Can black beans, drained/rinsed
1 Can pinto beans, drained/rinsed
1 C. frz corn
1 Can diced tomatoes, drained
1 Can diced tomatoes w/ chiles
FOR GARNISH:
Olives, sliced
        cheese, shredded
sour cream
chopped avocado or guacamole (optional)
cilantro, chopped
tortilla chips, for dipping

Instructions: Brown hamburger with 1/2 tbsp of the taco seasoning and all of the onion.

Add meat/onion mixture, with remaining soup ingredients, including remaining 1 tbsp taco seasoning to crockpot and cook on low for 6-8 hours.

Serve with tortilla chips, sour cream, cheese, olives, guacamole/avocado, and cilantro.

Served 2 adults and 2 children, with leftovers for 2.

** I originally made this with 3 C. beef stock, but Ken thought it was a little soupy, so I decreased the amount for when I make it next time.

I Did It . . . and other trivial things

• I did it!  I cooked dinner without a recipe!  This may not seem like a big deal to some people, but for someone who always "goes by the rules", it was monumental - okay, maybe not monumental - but it was a big deal to me.  I'm always looking for new recipes to try and when one of my friends told me she was having taco soup, I thought that sounded like a good one to try.  However, when I got the recipe, it looked too similar to chili, and since chili isn't Ken's favorite meal, I decided to look for another taco soup recipe.  However, all of the recipes I found where like chili, so I just made up my own recipe - like the way I imagined taco soup should be.  The  soup turned out great AND everyone liked it.
• And speaking of cooking, I have a few recipes that call for a can(s) of cream soup.  Because of my allergy to wheat, I usually just make my own soup to add to the recipe, but I miss the convenience of being able to just have cans on hand.  I guess if I was more on the ball, I could make extra soup and freeze it to have on hand.
• Amelia whines a lot (something I'm trying to help her stop doing), and yesterday she reminded me of the little girl who cried wolf.  Because she whines so much, I was just ignoring her whining . . . until around lunch time when I noticed that she actually had a fever and she told me her throat hurt and that she wasn't feeling good.  After Ibuprofen and a good nap everyone was feeling better and the whining stopped . . . for awhile anyway ;)
• I often have Pandora on while I'm cooking, and if the girls are around, then I choose a "toddler" station.  Even though I continually tell Amelia that it's just music, she always asks to watch the video while we're listening to songs she knows.  She obviously isn't growing up with radios/ cassette tapes/ cds ;)
• Sophia jabbers all the time.  I know she's trying to tell me something, as she points and jabbers, but most of the time I can't understand what she says unless she signs the word or actually says it.  However, it almost always seems that Amelia can understand Sophia as they have "conversations" all the time.  Some day I need to catch that on video.  My favorite is hearing Sophia say "oh" after Amelia says something to her.